Women still thin in management cadres

While the latest census by the South African Business Women’s Association (BWA) indicates that women are still hugely under-represented in the ranks of executive managers and directors of companies compared to their proportion of the total population, a red-hot debate has broken out in Germany about the possible introduction of a quota-system for women in that country.

Women make up 51.6% of the adult population in South Africa, yet they constitute only 19% of all executive managers and 16.6% of all directors  according to the 2010 census conducted by the BWA, the largest non-profit association of business women in South Africa.

Despite a marginal increase in 2010 over 2009, figures show that women are still dramatically under-represented in both sectors.”One of our goals this year as BWA is to strengthen our role as the voice of business women,” Nobuntu Webster said last week after her election  as vice-chairperson of the Durban branch of the BWA.

By strengthening their role as the voice of business women “women are not only empowered but also afforded the opportunity to operate within enabling environments,” she said.

She also pointed out that while there ws a marginal increase in women directors in 2010, this was not the case for black women where the number of female directors has declined since 2008.

Farzanah Mall, who was elected chairperson said that “as a country, we have achieved political emancipation. However we ha entered a new phase of the struggle which is economic empowerment and the fight against poverty.

“There is no doubt that one of the most powerful contributing factors to bring about social and economic change is the empowerment of women,” she said.

The German battle

From Germany Susanne Beyer and Claudia Voigt report in Spiegel that “statistics show that female executives in Germany's top companies are a rarity. The number of women in senior management positions is appallingly low at Germany's leading companies. Voluntary agreements have done little to improve the situation. It is time for lawmakers to take action.

"We need to initiate a broad debate on the idea of female quotas and then we must draw consequences," German Labourr Minister Ursula von der Leyen, a member of German chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party, told Spiegel in an interview.

"That's why the federal government will unveil a proposal this year," she said.

Her plan has, however not been universally well-received. Christian Social Union (CSU) head Horst Seehofer has said he is opposed to legally mandated quotas. So too has Guido Westerwelle, head of Merkel's junior coalition partner, the business-friendly Free Democrats.

Even chancellor Merkel herself came out this week in favour of a voluntary agreement with German industry rather than a new law.

In recent weeks, much has been said about the possibility of a legally-mandated quota in Germany. The idea of a quota-system for women in senior positions is not new in Europe. A 40% quota for supervisory boards at the country's largest companies was introduced in France in mid-January, with firms required to meet the requirement by 2017.

Other European countries and even the European Union have also passed or are considering such a move.

Last October, Germany's conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) -- the Bavarian sister party to chancellor  Merkel's Christian Democrats -- introduced a quota for party leadership positions. In December, the Green Party, which has long had a quota within the party, introduced draft legislation in the German parliament for the introduction of a legal quota for businesses.

Von der Leyen argues that if gender equality doesn't improve in German boardrooms, "the German labour market will fall hopelessly behind in the international competition for the best female minds."

Last week the German government released its first report on equality, which von der Leyen commissioned in 2008. It too came to similar conclusions.

German stats

Interestingly, when the proportional statistics are compared, women in South Africa seem to be doing rather better than their German sisters, according to a recent  report by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) containing figures on the proportion of women on the executive boards and supervisory boards of German companies.

Women currently hold only 3.2% of executive board positions in the 200 largest companies in that country. When the circle is narrowed to the 30 companies listed on the German DAX stock index and the 100 largest companies, the proportion of women falls to 2.2%. Put differently, of the 490 executive board members in these companies, only 11 are women.

Some 10 years ago, German industry representatives, anxious at the time to avert a gender equality law being planned by then Family Minister Christine Bergmann, decided to enter into a voluntary agreement with the government. The stated goal was to achieve lasting improvement in opportunities for women. Hardly anything has apparently happened in those 10 years.

Norway has been the one exception to the rule in Europe  for some time. As far back as 2003, Norway enacted a law mandating that women make up 40% of supervisory boards in all publicly traded companies by 2008.

The total number of women on supervisory boards in Norway has risen from 200 to about 1,000 in the last eight years. Even in companies that are not subject to the quota, the proportion of women on company boards has risen to about 30%.

For several years, the Norwegian business owners association offered courses to prepare women for their future responsibilities on supervisory boards.

The promotion of women in Norway is referred to as "pearl diving". Today the country has more foreign, publicly traded companies than before the quota was introduced.